August 18, 2024
Leadership Tip of the Week
Seize the Rest of the Year - Your Blueprint to Higher Health, Wealth, Joy and Results!
All through August we will be sharing with you our new SOAR Blueprint to help you to get after your goals for the rest of this year and set you up for MORE in 2025.
As a recap, last week we started with STACKING YOUR WHYS. The powerful exercise designed to help you deepen your understanding of your motivations, clarify your purpose, and build a stronger foundation for achieving your goals. This technique involves identifying multiple layers of reasons behind why you want to achieve a specific goal or pursue a particular action. If you don't have a deep enough why, the drive to get to the goals will be challenging.
NEXT, the "O" in the framework is OPTIMIZATION of you, your habits and your days.
Increasing our focus, energy and effectiveness by 30% every single week is actually fairly easy. We typically are simply too random about our days and by making some small shifts, we can increase our impact in big ways.
This 5 by 50 worksheet is one we share in our high performance trainings and coaching to support our clients to level-up their impact (among many others). These are 5-50 minute blocks that you can use to ensure you get the best of your day.
Rate yourself honestly on each then tally the total, and see how well you're doing. Pull out a sheet of paper and make notes based on the questions in each area.
- Get 50 minutes more sleep (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)
Challenge yourself to get 50 minutes more sleep. If you get 6 hours, add 50 minutes. How consistently are you sleeping 7-9 hours per night? Please remember the word here is "consistently". Rate yourself on a scale of 1 ("I never get that much rest") to 10 ("I almost always sleep 8 hours per night") then journal on how you could start to improve this area of your life:
- 50 minute morning power blocks (20 minutes of stretching or exercise, 30 minutes planning) (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)
Do you activate your physical body with stretching or a workout every morning? And do you begin your day strategically planning or in reaction-mode responding to your emails, messages and demands of other? How much of your first 60-minutes is really spent thinking and finding your center and purpose? This block will change so much for you! Write how you could improve:
- 50 minute block time (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)
"Block time" is a focus-management approach that requires "blocking out" significant amounts of time to advance or complete a major project in your life. It requires you to get clear on a major dream or goal and schedule real time to leap towards it. Do you tend to schedule uninterrupted blocks of time to actually work each day, or are you in reaction mode all day? Rate 1-10 then journal here on how you could improve:
- 50 minute breaks (take 10 minute breaks throughout the day) (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)
Do you take at least one standing break per hour when working or during times you are sitting? Do you move and stretch during that time? How could you take more breaks during each hour and what will you do to remind yourself to do it?
- 50 minute renewals (take 50 minutes to reset, refresh each day, schedule it in) (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)
Do you meditate or take a walk each and every single day on a consistent basis? What practice could you begin to reset your mind toward peace and freedom each day and how will you remind yourself to practice every day? Letting our minds wander after a day of activities can provide so much clarity and creativity too!
So, we challenge you to try this 5 by 50 optimization this week, 1 whole week and see how you feel. You will find yourself advancing what is most important and having great energy to do so!
Next week we will share the "A" in the blueprint!
If you want to dive deeper into learning how to shorten your curve to the "more" you are looking for, let's chat about 1:1 coaching. Click below!
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Wellness Tip of the Week
My Full Circle Moment on Why Food Should Be Fun -
By Chef Jenn
As a chef, I have always enjoyed all things food; the flavors, the smells, the experiences. There is something so nostalgic about thinking back to some of life's special events and remembering a meal, or dining in a restaurant and teleporting back in time to a specific moment.
While pregnant with my son, you can only imagine how excited I was to watch him experience all his "firsts" as it relates to food. I all of a sudden was going to have a built-in bestie which meant lunch dates, food exploration, and enjoying meals my somewhat picky husband didn't enjoy eating with me. This is an ongoing joke but still very much true. And yes, my son's palette has surpassed my husband's.
The day after Thanksgiving in 2022, my son was born. We immediately noticed that his tiny little body was struggling to breathe and something wasn't quite right. Hours after delivering, he was swept off to the NICU where he remained for the next 30 days. After tests, x-rays, scopes and more, our son was diagnosed with a severe case of laryngomalacia, an airway issue caused by a birth defect in the larynx. With each breathe, his airway closed into itself, making it impossible for him to coordinate breathing and eating at the same time. As a first time parent, this situtation was nothing short of terrifying. The unknowns were never ending and it was all a guessing game as to when and how this issue was going to be resolved.
After taking many steps forward, backwards, and then forward again, our little boy had finally learned how to feed from a bottle and had put on enough weight to be discharged. We had no clue the journey that we were in for as it related to feedings with him. For months, it took over an hour to finish a bottle. This coupled with your average "feed every 3 hours" for a newborn meant we were always feeding him. Our struggle continued for 4 months until we finally determined surgical intervention was necessary. It wasn't a decision that we took lightly, but with amazing care from our team of doctors, we made the decision and never looked back.
With a TON of patience and occupational therapy to help, at 8 months old, our son was finally ready to start eating solids and I was elated. I never thought we would see the day. As a mother first, and a chef second, this was a very full circle moment for me. I had spent years talking to people professionally about the impact of food and how important it is to romanticize it and make experiences around it. My previous vow, to always make food fun was now front and center in both my personal and professional life. As it related to my son, this meant:
- Feeding frequently even when the mess from the previous meal hadn't been cleaned up
- Incorporating as many colors and textures as possible
- Utilizing different cooking methods
- Providing sauces for dipping and not letting my chef-mind freak out when foods were being dipped in the wrong sauce
- Being adventurous with flavors and seasonings
- Making dishes that were hot and cold
- Introducing as much variety as possible
- Reintroducing foods just days later to assess what flavors and textures he was gravitating too, what he liked and disliked
Today, at 20 months old, every moment in our house revolves around food - I guess this is a lesson to be careful what you wish for! From yogurt parfaits and smoothies, to sushi, salmon, pasta, and a good old charcuterie board, my son is food-obsessed and saying it's fun is an understatement. Watching my very belief come to fruition has been such a magical experience. Each meal with him becomes pure entertainment as we watch him try new flavors and look at us wide-eyed as he says "yum".
You often don't always get to see the immediate gratification of your work. In this instance, I have a daily reminder that food is about more than just fueling your body, it's about creating memories.
What's New @ Modwellship
I was fortunate to join TheHourlyPodcast last week! 🎙️
Tune in with CEO of Sprockets, AJ Richichi, and I as we discuss the importance of whole-being wellness, leadership development, and creating a supportive work environment.
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